Gene Wheaton

Readers of Some Would Have Talked (2010) will be familiar with Wheaton and the implications of his information. So will those who have attended my presentations or seen my blog posts on him. Most recently, in 2016 at the JFK Lancer November in Dallas conference I presented my assessment of Wheaton as a source. The points in that assessment are provided below.

The good news is that at long last, courtesy of Mark Sobel and Debra Conway, a very important interview with Mr. Wheaton is now available to all those interested. The interview is on YouTube and the link to it is at the end of this vetting assessment. As always comments and questions are welcome.

Wheaton provided information consisting of comments made by two individuals who he described as having information relating to individuals involved in the attack on JFK

While the men purportedly named individuals, or at least described them in some detail, the men themselves were not involved

One of the men had trained certain of the individuals during his work with the CIA as a military trainer and the second was a Cuban exile who had been in that training and personally knew some of the individuals involved in the attack

Wheaton provided no details, only named the two men and identified them as secondary sources in regard to a conspiracy

Wheaton provided corroborative documents demonstrating his personal association with both men during the time frame of the purported remarks they had made related to the events in Dallas

Wheaton did not add any further details over the time frame of his efforts to register his information – first with a Congressman and ultimately to the ARRB

Wheaton attempted to take his information to the government via a Congressperson as soon as he was aware of it

The timing of his contact with the two men is independently corroborated

Wheaton’s association with both men is corroborated

The two men’s backgrounds are corroborated as Wheaton described them

Independent – albeit anecdotal – information connected individuals associated with one of the men named by Wheaton as having knowledge of a conspiracy related to the attack on JFK – that information includes a call made by RFK the afternoon of the assassination

Wheaton took none of his information public and never expected his confidential contact with the ARRB to become public

Wheaton described the threats made to him if he did attempt to report his information even if only privately – primarily consisting of efforts to discredit him as a viable source

Efforts to discredit Wheaton can be corroborated

Wheaton later expended his own resources in an effort to bring his information to the ARRB, making multiple contacts and providing extensive documentation

The ARRB totally failed to pursue or even corroborate Wheaton’s information

The ARRB staff member handling Wheaton’s information resigned from the ARRB staff

When contacted several years later the staff member claimed not to have any memory at all of Wheaton, his documents or repeated contacts with him

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About Larry Hancock

Larry Hancock is a leading historian-researcher in the JFK assassination. Co-author with Connie Kritzberg of November Patriots and author of the 2003 research analysis publication titled also Someone Would Have Talked. In addition, Hancock has published several document collections addressing the 112th Army Intelligence Group, John Martino, and Richard Case Nagell. In 2000, Hancock received the prestigious Mary Ferrell New Frontier Award for the contribution of new evidence in the Kennedy assassination case. In 2001, he was also awarded the Mary Ferrell Legacy Award for his contributions of documents released under the JFK Act.

Yes, as you can tell by the points covered in the vetting he passes virtually all the criteria for being a solid source. We went to some effort to contact the people he mentioned while they were all still alive and they stonewalled us like mad. I belive that he heard some very solid war stories about what went down and some true names, however he was also smart enough to try and take it only to Congress and the ARRB – and assumed his ARRB material would be kept confidential. He was shocked when he learned it has been released and quick to appreciate that I had actually written about it and that it might be dangerous to he and his grandchildren. He was very concerned about them and very quickly removed himself from any further limelight.

Yep, he was the real deal and one of our very few windows into the actual team that went to Dallas.

Bill we have made an effort to check into everyone he mentioned and to the extent that they can still be located (and we could find them) they all check out as having been in contact with Wheaton. During my presentation at Lancer last year, while I was still speaking, Russ Baker was checking out some of the names Wheaton mentioned including the Congressman. In real time he located a testimonial for Wheaton from one of his relatives who talked about Wheaton taking her to a party in DC and introducing her to the fellow.

All I can say is that Wheaton has been vetted probably more thoroughly than any source I’ve worked on other than Martino. There is just no doubt he knew these people and did what he says. And for that matter kept his mouth shut about it until the ARRB sandbagged him first by ignoring him and then by having his documents released when he assumed they would be kept in confidence. The only reason that interview happened is that he was literally shocked by that and wanted to see what William had…